PGA DFS: Showdown Spotlight for the Travelers Round 3 Picks & Preview

This column is a quick-hitter article to give you the stats you need to make informed PGA DFS picks for your DraftKings + FanDuel daily fantasy lineups and give you a couple of recommendations for the Travelers Championship. On a typical showdown contest DraftKings will offer upwards of 50K to first for rounds 2 & 3, and sometimes up to 100K for the final round contests. They also offer weekend-long contests that have been offering 25K to first for most weekends. Lastly, FanDuel has also tried to get into the weekend-long and final round contests, offering 10K & 5K to first.

Not a member of Awesemo? No worries, sign up HERE to gain access to the world’s best DFS player’s projections, rankings, tools and premium live blog.

Previous Round Commentary

A new member of the 50+ club Phil Mickelson shows he doesn’t need to head to the PGA Champions Tour quite yet, as he leads thru 36 at the Travelers. On the entirely opposite end of the Spectrum, 21-year-old William Gordon out of Vanderbilt continues his impressive start to his pro career and sits just one back of Phil heading into the weekend. Round 1 leader Mackenzie Hughes sits just one back as well.

Brendan Steele was able to shoot up the leaderboard as well, tieing Gordon’s low round of the day at 62, while a pair of Johnsons, Zach & Dustin came in with 64s. Troy Merritt also shot six-under on the day. Abraham Ancer continues to play extremely solid golf, as he sits inside the top 10 just five back of Phil to start the weekend.

The expected Weather:

For the first time in three weeks, the Weather is going to be a problem tomorrow, and because of that, they have moved the tee times up. At one pm, the wind is supposed to kick up north of 15 miles per hour, and have gusts all the way up to 30 MPH throughout the rest of the day. However, tee times END at 915, so I suspect that even the leaders will be done by the team the worst of the winds arrive. It’s almost as if there won’t be a weather factor in terms of the slate.

In Tournament Sweetsheet

Previous Round(s) Stat Review

Thru 2 Rounds:

Total Birdies or Better:

William Gordon (15)
Phil Mickelson & Mackenzie Hughes (14)
Brendan Steele & Xander Schauffele (13)
Five tied at 12

Greens In Regulation:

Brendan Todd, Marc Leishman, Kevin Na, Scott Stallings, Jim Furyk (86.1%)
Ten tied at 83.3 %, including Phil Mickelson & William Gordon.

Check out Awesemo’s one-day slate projections here!

Strokes Gained Ball Striking vs. Putting

Joaquin Niemann has continued to look impressive in terms of ball striking, much to my surprise, as I expected a let down this week. Maybe I’m a week early. In any case, he’s yet to find the putting stroke averaging almost 1.2 strokes lost with the putter but gaining over three with his ball-striking. Kyle Stanley shows up on this list for the first time in a while, as he looks to get back some of his form that has been lacking for the last while. Doc Redman, Viktor Hovland, & Shane Lowry finish out the top five in the category.

Want to see a full list of all the in tournament statistics, including strokes gained and more?! Click here.

PGA DFS Slate Preview:

DraftKings is offering a $50,000 to first for the round 3 showdown contests, and a 25K to first for the weekend-long contests. Plenty of other options available.
FanDuel is offering a $10,000 to first for the weekend-long contests.

PGA DFS Showdown Picks

Top-10 Breakdown

There are a few stars that sit up in the top 10, obviously the most notable being the best player in the world Rory McIlroy. He’s looked great over the first two rounds, just waiting for his putter to wake up a bit. Phil Mickelson has looked superb throughout his whole bag, and Marc Leishman looked great his last ten or so holes. A could of other big names sit close to the top, including Xander Schauffele, & Viktor Hovland.

My top 3:

Rory McIlroy
Marc Leishman
Viktor Hovland

Pick Inside the Current Top 10

Brendon Todd ($7,100)

After a lousy two weeks, Todd has bounced back this week and is in position for another big finish. He’s getting it done by hitting almost 90% of his greens, tied for the lead in the field in said category, and on top of that, he’s gained almost 3.5 strokes on his approaches of the first two rounds. So not only is he hitting greens, but hitting them close. He’s only made one bogey as a result. I like him as the lowest owned out of the golfers in the current top 10.

PGA DFS Stud or Value Pick Outside of Top 10

Patrick Cantlay ($9,400)

Sitting at -3, right on the cut line, Cantlay was staring at a 20-foot par putt that would have sent him back to -2. Instead, he drained it, and went onto to bridie his next four holes, bringing him from almost a definite missed cut, to back in the golf tournament. His putter carried him in round two, as he lost over as stroke to the field tee to green in round 2, so hopefully, that will move everyone to Dustin Johnson. I’m looking for low ownership here, and a bounce back in his ball striking. If we get both, he’ll be pivotal in round three and weekend-long slates.

Sneaky Pick Outside of Top 10

Si Woo Kim ($6,800)

A Pete dye specialist, Kim has finally made a cut and looks to be coming into form. He’s gained over 5.2 strokes tee to green over the first two rounds, including 3.2 with his approaches. He’s hit over 83% of his greens in the first two days, a great turnaround from the last two weeks. I suspect not many people will be ready to buy into him yet, plus he’s not that cheap considering other golfers playing well that are priced cheaper.

Lineup Fill-Ins:

Jim Furyk ($6,600)

Richy Werenski ($6,500)

Aaron Wise ($6,400)

Related PGA Content

Author

Jason Rouslin

Jason established his roots in the littlest state that could...Rhode Island. But after 29 years of bitter cold, and only being able to play golf 4 months a year, upended those roots and moved to Florida. Now four years later, Jason is a husband to Sarah and father of two boys, James & Myles. A dog and more specifically Lab lover (Bella), he dedicates his time to serve as the lead of PGA content at Awesemo.com. In the time he is not diving into the PGA stats and covering this week's current tournament, you can find him researching and trading stocks, on the golf course, at Disney World, on a hike, or somewhere in between. Want to chat? Have a question about Golf/Stocks or anything else? Hop on twitter and give him a message @dfsgolfer23. You can also contact Jason by emailing [email protected].